Japanese GP: Difficult start for Williams F1 in FP1

The opening Friday practice for the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix would see both Williams F1 drivers take to the track early with Pastor Maldonado leading out team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Both drivers would pit and the team would perform their usual checks. The track would clear and it would not be until fifteen minutes into the session that drivers would return to the track including Pastor. Pastor would be the first to set a timed lap with a 1m:36.969. Pirelli had brought their medium and hard tyres for this race weekend. Pastor would lower his earlier time with a 1m:36.178.

Thirty minutes into the session Bianchi would put his car into the tyre barrier at the second Degner curve. Perez was fastest at this time with a 1m:35.450, with Pastor second. Valtteri was down in fifth as he worked through various changes on his car during the session including different front wings.

An hour into the session and Pastor would suffer a major failure losing his left rear wheel going into the Spoon curve. Art this time Pastor was in fifteenth, 1m:36.178, and Valtteri sixteenth with a time of 1m:36.340. Pastor would come on his radio and say: “I lost a wheel.” Pastor had lost control of his car at the Spoon curve and when recovering his left rear wheel left his car. The team would start examining their data trying to determine what exactly happene3d with Pastor's car. Fastest at this time was Hamilton, 1m:34.157, from Rosberg, Vettel, and Webber.

With the end of the session Pastor and Valtteri would remain in fifteenth and sixteenth. Still on top of the times would be Hamilton with a 1m:34.157 from Rosberg. Vettel was third followed by Webber, Massa, Alonso, Grosjean, Raikkonen, Perez, and in tenth Ricciardo.

Pos Driver         	  Team		        Time     Laps
 1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes              1m34.157s 19
 2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m34.487s 19
 3. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m34.768s 24
 4. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m34.787s 20
 5. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m35.126s 14
 6. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m35.154s 16
 7. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m35.179s 15
 8. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m35.364s 17
 9. Sergio Perez          McLaren-Mercedes      1m35.450s 27
10. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m35.635s 19
11. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m35.868s 22
12. Nico Hülkenberg       Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.900s 18
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m36.066s 20
14. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m36.165s 19
15. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m36.178s 12
16. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Renault      1m36.340s 23
17. Paul Di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m36.399s 18
18. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari        1m36.760s 22
19. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m37.595s 22
20. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Cosworth     1m37.629s 8
21. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham-Renault      1m38.025s 15
22. Max Chilton           Marussia-Cosworth     1m38.763s 18